Agent's Conviction Overturned

Published: July 2, 1993

CHICAGO, July 1—
A former sports agent accused of using cash to recruit college athletes as clients had his conviction on mail fraud overturned today.

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled in favor of Norby Walters, who pleaded guilty to a mail fraud charge last year. Walters's plea agreement with prosecutors allowed him to appeal the decision, his attorney, Tyrone Fahner, said.

The mail fraud occurred when Walters and co-defendant Lloyd Bloom sent false student claims of eligibility through the mail, officials had said. But Judge Frank H. Easterbrook wrote that it was unclear whether Walters knew of the mailings.

Walters and Bloom paid athletes thousands of dollars to conceal from their schools agreements signed with them, prosectuors charged. Such signings violate National Collegiate Athletic Association rules. The government argued that the athletes' schools were defrauded because they paid scholarships to athletes who had become ineligible by signing with Walters.

Racketeering convictions against Walter and Bloom were reversed by the same court in September 1990.